Ciconia maltha

La Brea Stork (Cigüeña de La Brea)

Distribution. — Spring deposit (not ‘ from a cave’ as indicated by Howard 1942: 189) in central Cuba (see Appendix). Cienfuegos. Palmira: CCM (Wetmore 1928: 2 [‘ Jabiru mycteria ’], Howard 1942: 201). For summary of continental distribution, see Wetmore (1956: 22, 1959: 8 – 9), Brodkorb (1963: 289 – 290), Emslie (1998: 26 – 27) and Kilmer & Steadman (2016: table 4). Direct 14 C dating. — None in Cuba. Two indirect conventional dates from its fossil locality in Cienfuegos. Late Pleistocene (CCM):> 30,000 to 25,000 ± 2000 14 C yr BP (Kulp et al. 1952: 419, table 2 [two samples: pine cones and wood]). Notes. — The two referred specimens (Howard 1942: 201 – 202) are the only known material of this taxon in Cuba. Formerly recorded as Jabiru mycteria (M. H. C. Lichtenstein, 1819) by Wetmore (1928: 2 – 3), reidentified as Ciconia maltha by Howard (1942: 202; see also Wetmore 1956: 22, 1959: 9). Navarro (2021: 58, table 4) confused C. maltha with another fossil congeneric taxon in Cuba, the smaller and undescribed Ciconia sp. (see below), which is restricted to tar seeps in Matanzas province (Suárez & Olson 2003 a, Suárez 2020 a).

Holotype. — Left tarsometatarsus, UCMP 11202 (Miller 1910: 440, Figs. 1 * [proximal], 2 * [distal]). Collected by members of the ‘ University of California’ (Miller 1910: 439). Type locality. — Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles, California, USA (see Miller 1910, Howard 1942, Wetmore 1956: 22, Brodkorb 1963: 289). Referred material. — Tibiotarsus: distal left, AMNH unnumbered. Tarsometatarsus: proximal right, AMNH unnumbered (see Howard 1942).